The Company (2007)

So much average

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a master class by Michael Keaton. Though I never knew James Angleton, I've read plenty about him and Keaton absolutely nailed it.This little mini-series was OK. A bit unlikely with the love-interest parts and highly unlikely with the re-union scene in Austria. The CIA's involvements in certain major events are simply left out. I'm thinking East Asia, South America, running drugs etc, but hey, let's not get too uncomfortable.Was it worth watching? Yes. Would I watch it again? No. It's nowhere near the BBC's original Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, but worth it for Keaton's Angleton.

This is a brilliantly executed and really satisfying miniseries. They did a great job casting this series; every actor and actress gives a performance truthful to the character they are playing. The look of each time period was captured quite well. The locations and sets look really good.I bought this after watching the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy miniseries (which is vastly superior to the recent movie) and was hungry for more fiction about intelligence agencies. If you like spy stuff along the line of John le Carre then you will like this miniseries.If you like cold war history then you will like this miniseries. This miniseries takes you through pretty much the entire cold war. It was really enjoyable to watch a program about the things that had just been covered in my latest history class.It is a bit biased perhaps but don't let that bother you. After all, it is told from the perspective of CIA agents.I am very satisfied with my purchase and I am sure that I will watch this series again in the future.

The miniseries went out of fashion when the networks started economizing, so it's nice to see this one from TNT. "The Company," which refers to the CIA, stars Chris O'Donnell, Alfred Molina, Michael Keaton, Rory Cochrane, Alessandro Nivola, and Natascha McElhone, along with a huge international cast.The series purports to tell of some of the big events in which the CIA was involved throughout its history, woven in with the search for an elusive double agent, an American version of Kim Philby (who is also a character in the film, portrayed by Tom Hollander). The period covered is 40 years, from the start of the Cold War to the fall of the Soviet Union and focuses on the experiences of three fictional Yale grads, class of '54: Jack McCauliffe (O'Donnell), Leo Kritzky (Alessandro Nivola), and Yevgeny Tsipin (Rory Cochrane).This is a very absorbing miniseries with some great, good, and blah acting, in my opinion. Though it's understood that Alfred Molina is an excellent actor, for me, his portrayal of Harvey, Jack's boss, was a little too stagy. Chris O'Donnell was okay, coming off as a lesser Leonardo di Caprio or Matt Damon. For me the two great portrayals were those of Michael Keaton as James Angleton, the real-life chief of the CIA's counterintelligence unit, and Alessandro Nivola, who is an accomplished stage actor and gives a strong performance.Not surprisingly, this film came on the heels of the feature "The Good Shepherd," also about the CIA and starring Matt Damon. Because it has the luxury of being a miniseries, it's more detailed. Recommended.

This is an excellent 3 part mini-series. I watched it in one sitting which took about 6 hours including a couple of quick breaks. The pacing is slow and the movie has an overall darkness in terms of color but the characters are so engaging that I remained fascinated from the first screen shot to the last. Chris O'Donnell, Michael Keaton, Alfred Molina and Alessandro Nivola all gave terrific performances. Actually all of the actors were excellent in their roles. The Russian accents were commendable.I liked this very much. While Molina's character says that the world is black and white, good guys and bad guys, O'Donnell's character illuminates the grays for us and ultimately this is what lingers long after the DVD is over. Buy it, rent it, but definitely see it.Robert Little wrote the original book of 900 pages on which this mini-series is based. The book and the DVD differ in some aspects. I've not read the book, but I plan to. Apparently he's written a number of cold war spy novels another of which was made into a movie, "The Amateur".